Servers and other information technology equipment consume large amounts of energy. The energy consumption is depending on the load of the server and increases as load increases. Depending on the components used in such information technology equipment, the energy consumption is significantly different even between equipment that has similar performance characteristics and capabilities.
Furthermore every type of information technology equipment also provides different levels of capacity for the applications that they run, also called performance indicator(s), and typically measured in terms of transactions per second. Such a performance indicator is used to compare different equipment against each other.
As of today such performance indicators do not include energy efficiency of such equipment relative to said performance.
While performance ratings by transactions per second are common this invention extends such measures with the associated power consumption to calculate a rating of transactions per watt of power consumption to document the efficiency of the equipment when compared to other equipment.
Furthermore information technology equipment evolution is based on “Moores Law” that states that computers will double their capacity every 2 years.
As Wikipedia states: Moore's Law describes an important trend in the history of computer hardware: that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit is increasing exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. The observation was first made by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore in a 1965 paper. The trend has continued for more than half a century and is not expected to stop for another decade at least and perhaps much longer.
Almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronic devices is linked to Moore's Law: processing speed, memory capacity, even the resolution of digital cameras. All of these are improving at (roughly) exponential rates as well. This has dramatically increased the usefulness of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy. Moore's Law describes this driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Following Moore's Law means that the transactions per Watt of energy consumption will also double every 2 years and as such any rating for information technology equipment that is based on technology innovation that follows Moore's Law has to factor this in to allow for a useful comparison of such equipment relative to its release date.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains specifically to a method for calculating the energy efficiency of servers and other information technology equipment.
Moreover, this invention allows the creation of a consistent and common measurement of performance per energy consuming component over time considering the continued capability improvement of IT equipment as defined by “Moore's Law”.
Moreover, this invention gives purchasing guidance based on energy efficiency ratings by comparing equipment not just on features, performance and price but also on their energy efficiency.
2. Description of Related Art
Today there is no common method to compare information technology equipment that includes a component for energy efficiency. Today's benchmarks are usually used to select equipment based on its performance (transactions per second) and not based on its energy efficiency in relation to its performance (transactions per k Wh). While today the best performance is still a fairly common measure, best performance for a said energy consumption is much more meaningful for cost sensitive organizations.